Arresting moments in engaged management research

Abstract

We contribute to the literature on the production of knowledge through engaged management and organisational research. We explore how relational practices in management and organisational research may interpenetrate and change one another, thereby potentially producing new knowledge. We demonstrate the importance of the disruptive qualities of arresting moments in this process. We present data from within ongoing engaged management and organisational research at an arts festival involving related music, management and research practices, during which two arresting moments arose: one in our own core research practice, the other in related music and management practices. We found arresting moments were preceded by increasingly intense divisions between practices, when practitioners experienced increasingly entrenched views and heightened emotions. Arresting moments sometimes followed, producing an empathetic connection between practitioners, so that they could suddenly see situations from a new perspective. In this way, arresting moments could produce opportunities for (self-) reflexivity and the possibility of reconstructing knowing in relational practices.

(Engaging or Avoiding) Change Through Reflexive Practices

“…Thus the accounts acknowledged that being struck (Cunliffe, 2002a) is not necessarily always triggered by a critical event, but can build up over time towards the realization of arresting moments (Greig et al, 2013). More importantly, the focus on our own life stories allowed for rich conversations in which detailed, small-scale recollections and plausible meanings could be related to other discourses and meanings (Ripamonti et al, 2016), particularly those outlined in our initial conceptual framework.…”

“…This leads to our third area of insight, through which we begin to explain the dynamic possibilities for moving between avoiding and engaging with a call to change (c.f. Gorli et al, 2015;Greig et al, 2013;Paulsen, 2015). It is clear that some reflexive practices can be enacted in more than one mode and with a range of intentions, and some that are less flexible.…”

“…First, we expect that "being struck" (Cunliffe, 2002a) or facing "arresting moments" (Greig et al, 2013) are unlikely to be an once-in-a-lifetime events. The range of examples -and their variety of scale and scope -in our limited range of accounts strongly suggests that these experiences might be encountered multiple times in a variety of contexts, or across most career paths.…”

Reflexivity in practice: Tools and conditions for developing organizational authorship

“…By producing an interruption between the premises and the consequences of action, what Cunliffe (2003) and Greig et al (2013) call 'arresting moments', it encourages social actors to see themselves as agents and as authors of the organizations and institutions in which they live. In other words, practical reflexivity is closely linked to the pursuit, enhancement, and development of organizational authorship.…”

Embedding Impact in Engaged Research: Developing Socially Useful Knowledge through Dialogical Sensemaking

“…This complements and builds on recent literature on impact through engaged and collaborative research (e.g. Greig et al ., ; MacIntosh et al ., ; Marcos and Denyer, ; Philips et al ., ; Van de Ven, ). We conclude by evaluating the impact and challenges of this approach, how it enables the development of socially useful knowledge that is shareable across contexts and academically rigorous.…”